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The gravestone of Judah Loew (known as the Maharal) and his wife, Pearl (1528–1610) is located in the Old Jewish Cemetery of the Jewish quarter in Prague. A prominent scholar and kabbalist, the…
This portrait depicts the first chief rabbi of Great Britain, Aaron Uri Feivel Hart (1670–1756). Hart was born in Breslau and followed his merchant brother to England. His only published work, the…
Menachem Vivante (b. 1650) was a rabbi in Corfu in the eighteenth century and a member of a prominent merchant family. In this oil portrait, painted when he was eighty-five years old, he is depicted…
Now it is not my intention to be a wiseacre when I show people that some rabbinic statements should not be taken literally. Belonging to this genre, is the story of Og uprooting a mountain the size of…
Abraham Menaḥem Kohen Porto to the prince and magnate, chieftain and nobleman, our teacher R. Menaḥem Azariah de Fano—may his Rock and Redeemer preserve him—greetings to his glorious excellency!
Beh…
Kol sakhal (Voice of a Fool), a polemical work attacking rabbinic Judaism, has been the subject of many scholarly debates. To this day, its composition and aims remain shrouded in mystery. The author…
Rabbi Yose said: I was once traveling on a road, and I entered one of the ruins of Jerusalem to pray. Elijah [the prophet], who is remembered for good, came and waited for me at the entrance [of the…
“Moses received the Torah from Sinai” [m. Avot 1:1]:
R. [Ovadiah] from Bartenura has explained this to mean “from the One revealed at Sinai.” And there, when God revealed Himself at Sinai, Moses…
Now comes the turn, with awe and reverence, awe and reverence without end, of my father, the pious, God-fearing, learned one, may his strength be for the Torah [see Esther 2:15], the supernal light…
One who uses the Ineffable Name in this world will have a great punishment, and the reason for this is that he mentions holy letters in impurity, and combines that which is holy with that which is…